We have all heard of the "four families", "eight families" and the like, but do you know that in the ancient Northern Wei Dynasty, there were two major valve groups, "Xianbei Eight Surnames" and "Northern Wei Four Surnames"? They were once glorious and influential in that era. These surnames are everywhere around us today, but how many people can tell where they came from and how prominent they were?
During the Northern Dynasties, the Central Plains rose together, and since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, China has experienced nearly two centuries of division and chaos. In 386 AD, the Xianbei tribe Tuoba Ү established the Northern Wei Dynasty in Pingyang, Hebei. For more than 100 years, the Northern Wei Dynasty became stronger and stronger in the continuous wars, and once unified the north, covering North China, Northwest China and Shaanxi.
In the middle of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the reigning minister Taizong Yuangui during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen implemented a series of policies aimed at integrating Han culture in order to consolidate the dynasty's rule. One of the most striking is to change the surname of the Xianbei people to the Han surname, in order to achieve the purpose of assimilating the Han people. This reform was a milestone in the beginning of the ruling class's radical convergence towards Han culture.
The process of changing a surname is large and complex, and the corresponding rules have always been controversial. But judging from the results, this Sinicization campaign was a great success. The imperial family of the Northern Wei Dynasty was changed from the Tuoba clan to the Yuan clan, and other Xianbei tribes followed suit, such as the Xi clan, the He clan, and the Bebi clan were also changed to Han surnames. These new surnames soon took root in the ruling class of the Northern Wei Dynasty and became representatives of the family of gate lords.
In 495 AD, Emperor Xiaowu of the Northern Wei Dynasty issued an edict to establish the special status of the "Xianbei Eight Surnames". The eight surnames are Muhammad, Lu, He, Liu, Lou, Yu, Ji and Wei. Although they come from different Xianbei tribes, they all made great contributions at the beginning of the Northern Wei Dynasty and are regarded as the most prominent gate lords in the imperial court.
These eight surnames are referred to in the edict as "after the meritorious ones", meaning that they are descendants of the meritorious heroes of the Northern Wei Dynasty. As early as when the Northern Wei Dynasty Taizu Tuoba Haosi was in power, these families became important ministers of the government and the opposition by virtue of their military fiefdoms. By the time of Emperor Xiaowu, the Northern Wei Dynasty had gone through a hundred years, and the political and military influence of these eight families could not be ignored.
Emperor Xiaowu wrote in the edict: "The descendants of Xianbei did not have a surname at the beginning, and the descendants of those who made outstanding achievements were not treated differently. Even in the rank of prince, their relatives and descendants still do menial work. This reflects the trade-off between rank and lineage in the early Northern Wei Dynasty. Cronies of the royal family were able to gain high office prominence, while the true children of the old aristocracy were often left out in the cold.
In order to consolidate his rule, Emperor Xiaowu decided to re-establish the privileged position of these eight families. The edict clearly stipulates: "The eight surnames of Mu, Lu, He, Liu, Lou, Yu, Ji, and Wei have made great contributions since the founding of Taizu and have been crowned princes." Therefore, the descendants of these eight surnames, who are well documented, from top to bottom, cannot be granted lowly positions, the same as the four surnames. "
The so-called "same as the four surnames" refers to the "eight surnames of Xianbei" and the "four surnames" in the gate valve of the Han family. These four surnames mainly refer to the northern clans such as Fanyang Lu, Qinghe Cui, Xingyang Zheng and Taiyuan Wang. They have been passed down from generation to generation in the Guanzhong area, and they were the most powerful Han nobles in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Emperor Xiaowu's edict not only established the privileges of the eight surnames, but more importantly, juxtaposed the Han and Xian nobles to create a new ruling class.
At the same time that Emperor Xiaowu established the privilege of "Xianbei Eight Surnames", a group of extremely powerful Han families were also born in the government and the opposition. These families were respectfully called the "four surnames" during the Northern Wei Dynasty, and became the top aristocratic class at that time along with the eight surnames of the Xianbei people.
The so-called "four surnames" mainly refer to the four major families of Fanyang Lu, Qinghe Cui, Xingyang Zheng and Taiyuan Wang. They have lived in the Guanzhong area for generations, and have been important gatekeepers there as early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the middle and late Northern Wei Dynasty, with the continuous expansion of the dynasty's territory, the influence of these four families became increasingly apparent.
Among them, the most prominent is the Fan Yang Lu clan. This family can be traced back to the famous prime minister Lu Zhi in the Warring States Period, and later took root in the Guanzhong area and became a prominent family giant. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the descendants of the Lu family were all over the government and the opposition, and countless important ministers Zaifu came from this family. Moreover, the Lu family is extremely close to the Northern Wei royal family, and through the marriage bond, the fate of the two has also become closely related.
Although the Qinghe Cui family is not as long as the Lu family, it was also a top family in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The ancestral home of this family is in the Longxi area, and later migrated to Guanzhong, where it became a famous family. The Cui family not only had a high status in Guanzhong, but even intermarried with the imperial family at one time. The descendants of the Cui family are all over the government and the opposition, and they can be described as full of talents.
The origins of the Zheng clan in Xingyang and the Wang clan in Taiyuan are slightly inferior to those of the previous two. The Zheng family started in Shaanxi, and established a foothold in Guanzhong during the Northern Wei Dynasty and grew stronger day by day; The Wang clan was a Hebei clan, which was reused by the Northern Wei court and later had a place in Guanzhong. But even so, the two families were also promising families at that time, with many protégés and clansmen all over the government and the opposition.
The Northern Wei Dynasty was clearly divided between the upper and lower levels, and the power was held by the royal family, the eight surnames of Xianbei, and the four surnames of the north. This rigid hierarchy kept the dynasty running, but it also sowed the seeds of the struggle for power.
In the later period of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the intrigue between the gate valves became increasingly intense, the imperial power existed in name only, and the government fell into the quagmire of family monopoly. The eunuchs played the most crucial role, manipulating the government behind the scenes, collecting money from the people, and being arrogant and lascivious, which became the biggest obstacle to curbing corruption in the government and the opposition.
In 528 AD, Emperor Xiaoming of the Northern Wei Dynasty was only 10 years old when he ascended the throne, and the eunuch Liu Dezhang took the opportunity to support his own army and govern autocraticly, forcing the emperor to put on a show. Although ministers such as Wei Shui and Yang Xiaobo are talented, it is difficult for them to display their ambitions under the heavy constraints of the gate valve group. The government and the opposition colluded with each other to divide power and interests, and the people were struggling to make a living.
This chaos continued into the Renshou period. In the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Wei Shu and Yang Xiaobo were deposed for a time, and the new prime minister Gao Huan colluded with the eunuch Liu Deshun, causing the country to fall into unprecedented corruption. The Gao clan took advantage of the chaos to make money frantically, and the factions around seriously split the court.
In 534 AD, Gao Huan and Emperor Xiaojing moved east to Cangzhou to confront the Eastern Wei regime. The general Yu Tongzu took the opportunity to make trouble and supported Gao Yuanze, another clan of the Gao family, and established the Western Wei regime in Hebei, which did not give in to the Eastern Wei dynasty. The Northern Wei Dynasty was thus divided into a three-legged situation.
There are also many contradictions between the Gao brothers, and Gao Yuan and Gao Hong have been in the same room several times because of the uneven distribution of spoils. In the early period of the Western Wei Dynasty, it fell into the complete paralysis of gate valve politics and had no time to take care of external troubles. In the end, under the combined forces of the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi, the Western Wei Dynasty was completely destroyed in 557.
Although the gate politics of the late Northern Wei Dynasty brought endless disasters to the country, these once-prominent clans did not disappear. On the contrary, they still had influence that could not be ignored during the Sui and Tang dynasties.
With the establishment of the Northern Zhou, Northern Qi and Sui dynasties, the Central Plains gradually moved towards unification. This undoubtedly gave a certain impact to the former elites, but it did not completely erase their privileged position. On the contrary, in order to win the hearts and minds of the people, the new dynasty had to open up to these old aristocratic families.
Due to geographical location, the great clans of the Northern Dynasties were mainly distributed in two regions: one was the Guanzhong region, including those with four northern surnames; The other is in Hebei and Shandong, mainly the eight surnamed gate valves of the Xianbei people. Both groups suffered heavy losses before the Tang Dynasty, but they were not destroyed.
After the reshuffle of the Sui Dynasty, although the power of the four surnames in Guanzhong was not as strong as before, there were still people in the government and the opposition. Some of the children and grandchildren of the Lu family, the Cui family and other families became officials, and some became big landowners, and their influence should not be underestimated. Not only did they maintain their family traditions in the Guanzhong area, but they also gradually spread to other parts of the Central Plains.
The fate of the eight families of Hebei Xianbei is even more tortuous. After the fall of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the surnames Yuan, He, and Liu were first displaced between the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi dynasties, and the family's power plummeted. It was not until the Sui Dynasty unified China that these former Xianbei nobles re-emerged. Some were inherited by the Sui Dynasty court, and some were entrusted with reuse. They eventually regained their foothold in Hebei or Shandong and became prominent local families.
By the time of the Tang Dynasty, the Central Plains had been completely unified, and these former big families were integrated into the tide of the Han nation. Even so, in some areas, they continued to maintain their family roots, and intermarried with the emerging clans, becoming local tyrants.
Although the influence of the gate valve is no longer the glory and wealth of the past, their former prominent position has never been completely erased. The descendants of these "Xianbei Eight Surnames" and "Northern Four Surnames" are still active in our field of vision, and they may no longer be the pride of the sky, but they are important inheritors of Central Plains culture.